SPHS Pride Club, California Reject “Don’t Say Gay” Bills

With the “Don’t Say Gay” and anti-trans bills sweeping the red states, on April 22, the San Pedro High School Pride Club, Fem Fellowship, and Pirate Dancers staged a Silent Pride Parade.

The parade walk started from instructor David Crowley’s classroom — which houses the nation’s first school Gay Pride Library — to the flagpole outside. The Silent Pride Parade ended with a “Break the Silence Rally” on the steps in front of the school’s main office with speeches and a Pirate Dancers performance.

The LGBTQ+ community is under attack in several states, and the SPHS Pride Club has something to say about it. Random Lengths News captured the voices of the Pride Club’s “Break the Silence” rally, speaking out, including student interviews here: SPHS Students March against Anti-LGBTQ Policies

Crowley, in a press release, stated the GLSEN Day of Silence is a national student-led demonstration where LGBTQ students and allies all around the country — and the world — take a vow of silence to protest the harmful effects of harassment and discrimination against LGBTQ people in schools.

But California is pushing back against this legislation. Read RLn’s story California to Become a Sanctuary State for Trans Texans by editorial intern Anealia Kortkamp, discussing how “Conservative led states have decided to curtail LGBT rights, and California in response is now drafting laws specifically to thwart this behavior from encroaching into its borders.”

The educator noted that the SPHS Pride Club will decorate a display case in the hallway of the main building for Pride Month and will be organizing and running the teen tent at San Pedro Pride Festival on June 18, downtown, between 6th and 7th streets.

“Needless to say,” Crowley added. “We are grateful to live in California and have a school and district that supports us.”

Annually, near the second Friday in April, thousands of students across the country participate in GLSEN’s Day of Silence, a daylong vow of silence symbolizing the silencing effect of anti-LGBT bullying and harassment.

GLSEN (pronounced glisten; formerly the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network) is an education organization working to end discrimination, harassment, and bullying based on sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression and to prompt LGBT cultural inclusion and awareness in K-12 schools